


To Heal

by suomifae



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, badger cereal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-04
Updated: 2016-01-04
Packaged: 2018-05-11 20:04:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5640211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/suomifae/pseuds/suomifae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A quiet afternoon nap after a sleepless night.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Heal

**Author's Note:**

> frosti (frostisass on tumblr) made me feel things and it wasn't fair >:C
> 
> lets say this is an au where the nasty burger accident still happened and danny still went to vlad, but vlad beING A REASONABLE ADULT didnt rIP OUT DANNY'S GHOST HALF TO CREATE DAN. OkAy? okay  
> its still sad tho so

“Vlad?” a quiet voice echoed in the far too large and far too empty living room of Vladimir Master’s mansion.

Vlad, having been quietly reading a book on the couch, looked up in question. He spotted Danny standing in the doorway, looking tired and grim. They were both tired, both always so emotionally exhausted ever since… Ever since the accident. Grief was a hard burden to bear and each of them had copious amounts of other responsibilities to attend to at the same time. Danny still insisted on protecting the town from malevolent ghosts and Vlad had a business to run, and while getting lost in their work may help distract them from the pain, a nice day at home was always appreciated. 

Vlad closed his book and gestured to the space beside him on the couch. Danny slumped into the room, blanket wrapped around his shoulders trailing after him. His hair was a mess and he was still wearing baggy pajamas. He must have had another sleepless night, just like Vlad. Guilt and nightmares tended to creep up in the darkness so sleep was rare for the both of them.

Danny curled up on the sofa next to him and Vlad wrapped an arm around him, carding comforting fingers through his hair. Neither said a word, just finding as much peace in the moment as they could, trying to find any sort of reprieve from the constant mourning and regret. 

Ghosts obsessed after all, and being half-ghosts, they both found themselves trapped and seemingly unable to let go. Even in their moments of respite. 

“It hurts,” Danny whispered, burying his face in Vlad’s shoulder.

“I know,” Vlad replied softly, sorrow heavy in his eyes. 

They sat like that for hours. Danny, trying to block out the world with the one person he had left in it, the one person who could understand and share his anguish. And Vlad, trying to forget it all ever happened in the first place, holding onto the one person who needed him most, the one person he could ever call family. 

“You should sleep,” Vlad whispered to him eventually, breaking the painful silence.

“I can’t,” Danny replied, yawning and burrowing further into Vlad’s arm and his blanket.

Vlad sighed before shifting to lay on the couch, gently maneuvering Danny so he was laying down with him and tucked under Vlad’s chin. He snagged some of Danny’s blanket and draped it over himself as well. 

“Well, even if _you_ aren’t going to sleep, I am,” Vlad declared, wrapping a protective arm around Danny’s chest and adjusting the other arm for both to use as a pillow.

Danny didn’t say a word, too tired to respond, but he did settle his back against Vlad’s chest and wrap a hand around Vlad’s arm, basking in the familial comfort it brought. 

Eventually they both found sleep, napping peacefully for once as the sun made its way across the sky turning morning to early afternoon.   
Light spilled through the large windows of Vlad’s home, casting a warm and gentle glow over the couch and the two sleeping halfas. The previously heavy silence that had pervaded the house was broken by the easy quiet of the afternoon that followed. A hushed tranquility of a sort, which signified the eye of the storm. 

For ghosts may have their obsessions, and being half as such made it that much harder to let go of loss, they were also humans. 

And humans had the astounding ability, even if it took a very long time, to _heal._


End file.
